nate as a plumber(s)

Dreams

What I remember was quite short; at about 3:30am this morning, I found myself dreaming of being in a hospital bed, with the various monitors and so attached, and in the corner of the room, Aunty Bonnie (who passed away last year) was sitting there in the corner and said directly to me in a steady voice, "You do not have long to live. You will die soon", at which point I woke up

I don't normally remember dreams, and neither am I familiar with ones so direct; needless to say, I'm a little shaken...

Inspired to write

With the few people I've spent time with leading up to the advent of the new year, I've maintained that I've not been looking forward to '08

I really, really liked '07; '06 @ u/seed was fantastic, '07 was an incredible year of new beginnings and magnificent adventures, and I was really quite sad to see it go, especially as '08 on the surface has nothing exciting at all

But tonight, as I sat on the roof of one of the oldest buildings in melbourne (eating dumplings, appropriately), christop came up with this gem: "so, similarly to how you're romantic in everything you do, are you now going to be adventurous? even though you're not going to have a big adventure this year, will you be having lots of little ones?"

We went down to christop's room, went through photos of brent's birthday, credo christmas, and the staff chrissy party. I got home, read through christops and kates blogs - to spend some time with pictures and words of such colour and life vibrance, it's simply impossible to come away and not be "life-breathed"

As the mental haze and fog start to lift, and with it the projections of only avoidance of relationships-and-selves-only environments, I start to see again the potential timbre of life... of '08

And become, again, inspired to write

Mick Duncan, a bible study, from Surrender '06

Mark 10:17-25 The Rich Young Man

Luke 9:57-62 The Cost of Following Jesus

Luke 14:26 The Cost of Being a Disciple

"Who here will give a chapter of their lives away, just a chapter, and go and live amongst the poor and the needy? Be it in New Zealand, be it in Australia, be it in Bangkok, be it in Manilla, be it wherever; who here will give a chapter of their lives away?

So I've asked that question for nigh on 30 years and invariably, during the coffee breaks, and the lunch breaks, I get people who come up to me and they say "Mick, look I like the question, you know I like what you're saying... but I just got married" or "I've got little kids" or "I've got my career that I've just launched out on" or "I've just bought a house" or "I've just got this, or I'm just doing this"

When these people trot out these things, I say to myself that this person in front of me has a non-negotiable in their life; this person in front of me, they have allowed their non-negotiables to now call the shots in their lives

These people in front of me, have separated these non-negotiables from the hard sayings of Jesus; these non-negotiables they now rule this persons life

This person now has the issue with idolatory in their lives, but they can't see it; they have a blind spot. And if they choose not to see it, they have a love of darkness (John 3:19)"

How dare I...

I've just finished another chapter in Phil Yancy's "What's so amazing about grace?", and out of many, many incredible points he makes in that chapter, there was one that took me back a bit; Christian gays

I have to admit my instinctive reaction was to immediately (even in all my liberalness) regard this as a contradiction in terms; "Christian" gays? That's just not possible...?

It went into a short but (for me) insightful look into the a church for gay people, and after my seconds of ungraceful thought, and further reading, it hit me

What gives me the right to consider gays any less righteous than me!! For ALL have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God; not for SOME have sinned a little bit and don't fall that short... I have SINNED and deserve rightfully an eternity shunned by Him

So what then is the difference between a church filled with us sinners, and a church filled with gay sinners; can we legitimately call a church like Hillsong a church any closer to God than a gay church?

How then, can I dare think that anyone of us is any less of a sinner, than someone who struggles with homosexuality

T-minus 11 days...

... to the City Romp!! A quasi-Amazing Race that 12 of us will be playing on the 14th Oct; it's taken a lot of wrangling and a lot more e-mails, but it seems to be slowly coming together, and the team pages have gotten me psyched, as they're pretty fun... :D

China Chickens

City Seekers

It looks like it might be a lot of fun, and for a good cause too (The Burnet Institute):
By participating in the Romp you’ll be helping to raise money to fund medical research and public health programs that will benefit people across Australia and overseas. We work on a range of diseases like measles, HIV, hepatitis, malaria and TB; breast, ovarian and prostate cancers; as well as diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The state of the world... or at least nate's head...

I don't know quite what to make of it all.

The night in segments:

1) Tonight was the end of the local charismatic church conference, and it ended with a good message that really hit home for me about the core of the gospel; about how we, as Kaiwin would put it, are "dirty, rotten sinners", and we all fall short of the glory of God

2) As one would expect a very triumphant closure to the conference then came about, with high praise; a celebration of sorts, lots of noise, loud, loud music, lots of movement

3) Then contrasted with a bit of an aimless drive around the 'burbs, by myself listening to the BBC reports about the incredible situation in Burma; of hearing over the scratchy AM airwaves of the incomprehensible strength of the Burmese, in the face of a corrupt government, in the face of massively violent retaliations, standing up not for themselves, but for their nation. Of movements around the world rallying support for the embattled peoples, on a huge global scale


4) And then getting home, and reading in "What's so amazing about grace?" about incredible acts of grace throughout history, the very strength (and not weakness) of grace, and how grace, perhaps moreso than violence, can dramatically change history

Add all of that up, and you get something that doesn't quite fit into a nice neat package that is easily digestable and regurgitable, and I'm sure a large part of it is just my own lack of comprehension skills, rather than an enormous complexity of thoughts, but it's a little confusing / challenging / provoking nonetheless...